(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin film transistor array panel and a liquid crystal display including the same.
(b) Description of Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) is one of the most widely used flat panel displays. LCDs are used in notebook or laptop computers, desktop computer monitors and televisions. LCDs are lightweight and occupy less space than conventional cathode ray tube (CRT) displays.
The general structure of an LCD consists of a liquid crystal (LC) layer that is positioned between pair of panels including field-generating electrodes such as pixel electrodes and a common electrode as well as polarizers. The LC layer is subject to an electric field generated by the electrodes and variations in the field strength change the molecular orientation of the LC layer and polarization of light passing through the LC layer. Appropriately positioned polarized filters block the polarized light, creating dark areas that can represent desired images.
One measure of LCD quality is aperture ratio. To increase aperture ratio, it has been suggested that the size of the pixel electrodes be maximized to be close to or to overlap data line for transmitting data voltages to the pixel electrodes. However, maximization of the size of the pixel electrodes results in a large parasitic capacitance between the pixel electrodes and the data lines, causing several defects. For example, the parasitic capacitance varies between exposure areas due to alignment deviations, which are divided in divisional exposure steps for forming the pixel electrodes and the data lines. The deviation of the parasitic capacitance yields deviation in transmittance between the exposure areas, causing stitch defect that boundaries of the exposure areas are caught.